FingerGaming

These games are slightly old news, but seeing as how they flew under basically everyone’s radar, I thought I’d give them a little spotlight here. Yudo Games has made a name for itself on the iPhone with its Aero Series, a collection of rhythm-based games vaguely in the vein of Tap Tap Revenge. Recently, Yudo released upgraded versions of each game in the series — Aero Guitar Evolution, Aero Synth Evolution, and Aero Drum Evolution. Free demo versions of the non-Evolution titles in the series are also available in guitar, drum, and synthesizer flavors.

The rhythm genre is rarely explored on the iPhone, making these titles worth a look on their own. Also noteworthy is that Aero Guitar Evolution recently saw a WiiWare release, though that particular version is exclusive to Japan for now.

For me, though, the most interesting thing about these games is that they feature new music by famed game composer Reo Nagumo.

For anyone who has no idea of what I’m raving about, Reo Nagumo — alias DJ Nagureo, alias NARD, alias Tiger Yamato — was an early driving force in Konami’s Beatmania series, producing some of the franchise’s most memorable tracks, such as 20 November, 5.1.1., and R5. Seeing as how Beatmania basically invented the kind of arcade-style rhythm gameplay seen today in games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Nagumo’s contributions to the genre are not insignificant.

More awesomely still, Nagumo’s tracks in the Aero series are apparently the first video game compositions he has produced since he stopped composing music for Konami in 2007. Fan speculation ran as far as to claim that he had quit the music scene altogether to open a sushi restaurant, but this is apparently false, as Nagumo is not only making music for iPhone games, but he’s also apparently the CEO of Yudo now. Good for him!

His latest Aero Synth track, incidentally, is called OBAMA. This, I need to hear.

Tags: aero guitar evolution, Music, rhythm, yudo